Painted wood products are in high demand in the market. Traditional cabinet and furniture manufacturers include “painted” products in their offering. The cabinet industry, for example, offers about 40% of the entire offering in painted finishes. These painted finishes take multiple steps to accomplish the final product and are typically produced on hardwood veneer panels for every end panel and some interior panels as well. Hardwood veneers, however are costly and also not sustainable.
On the other hand, the cost of porous panel products is drastically lower than hardwood veneers. These products are also much more sustainable as they are by-products of the woodworking industry globally. Porous panel products include medium density fiberboard (MDF), high density fiberboard (HDF), medium density overlay (MDO), and high density overlay (HDO). These boards are being used to replace much more expensive hardwood veneer panels and can provide a much higher finishing capability than the hardwood veneer panels. The porous nature of these panels, however, require proper sealing to provide resistance to warping, expansion, shrinkage, or water damage.
Accordingly, there is need for methods of sealing porous panel products to achieve the same or better results in the final painting process than sealing hardwood veneer panels while not increasing the existing finishing steps involved. These methods would also greatly reduce the end user's structural cost. There is also a need to provide a method of providing a professional high quality look similar to hardwood veneer panels or better.